USA > Maine > Ancient dominions of Maine : embracing the earliest facts, the recent discoveries, of the remains of aboriginal towns, the voyages, settlements, battle scenes, and incidents of Indian warfare, and other incidents of history, together with the religious developments of society within the ancient Sagadahoc, Sheepscot, and Pemaquid precincts and dependencies > Part 9
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MURDER AT KENNEBEC.
The Plymotheans, impatient of competition for the profits of their newly opened trade on the Kennebec waters, became involved in a quarrel with an agent of "Lord Say and Brook," the commander of whose vessel entered these waters for trade with the natives. Capt. Hocking forced his way up the river, and " because he would not come down again," three men were sent in a canoe to cut his cables. On cutting one, Hocking presented and threatened
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to shoot him who should cut the other. "Do it if you dare," said the boatman, and lifted his axe for the fatal sundering stroke, when Hocking shot him dead. The exas- perated Plymotheans, from their pinnace riding near, fired on Hocking in return, who fell. These homicides originated the reproachful adage, that " they cut one another's throats for beaver," 1 on the Kennebec.
" A worthy gun-smith, 2 of Bristol city, in England 1638. - a young man, found employment at his trade at
Pemaquid." During the excitement for acquiring landed estate, which the influx of population created, and in the consequent migratory movements of the population, to secure eligible locations, the father of Wm. Phips sought a new home and established his plantation on a peninsular margin of the Sheepscot waters, forming the eastern and northern boundaries of Hock-omock bay at the lower outlet of " Monseag" - the meaning of which would seem to be the place of "island-waters," a native term - in the south- eastern extreme of Woolwich, near which a hamlet grew up where a ship was built by his distinguished son. At this point, the great inland water-way from Pemaquid to the Kennebec reaches a plateau, whose waters are broached by the Nequaseag passage into Kennebec on the west, and the Goose rock entrance below, and Monseag passage by way of Wiscasset above, which was, in early days, de- scribed under the name of " Cross River." Along the mar- gins of this water way, the earliest white settlers took up residence and made their plantations, dotting with their clearings the whole line of travel from Pemaquid to Kenne- bec. Phips, Hammond, Brown, and Bateman occupied the more conspicuous points.
1 Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. v. p. 167, 2d series.
2 Thornton's Pemaquid, p. 91.
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ORIGINAL PURCHASE OF WOOLWICH.
A hogshead of corn and thirty pumpkins1 paid the value of a title to the town of Woolwich, " a seat 1639. or savage-homestead consisting of one Wigwam or Indian house," called Nequaseg, (meaning the clear-water- place residence of the native Sagamore, Mow-ho-ti-wormel,) to John Brown and Edward Bateman, planters of Pemaquid.
Less than thirty years had gone by, the site of this town passing from Brown to Bateman, and from Bateman to Cole, when Cole and James Smith were dwellers in the town of Woolwich, on the banks of a streamlet draining the mead- ows above, and which emptied the superfluous waters over a rocky declivity into a shallow bay, latterly discharging into the Kennebec opposite Bath.
ROBIN-HOOD.
A deep narrow inlet filling a considerable indentation, southward into the heart of Georgetown, where the waters of Sheepscot Bay receive those of the "by river," (Sasanoa ?) the thoroughfare from Sheepscot to Bath -still bears the name of Robinhood's cove ; and was probably a favorite resi-
1 Register's Office, Lincoln Co., Lib. 1, p. 12.
"Mow-ho-tiwormet, son of Mony-wormet, deceased, conveyed to Edward Bateman and John Brown, lately of Pemaquid, planters, a seat or place, commonly called Nequaset, lying between the bounds of Sa-ca-di-ock river on the west and Shepscooke river on the east, and the river commonly called Nequaseg on the south-west, with one wigwam, or Indian house, for divers causes and considerations and especially for one hogshead of corn and thirty pumpkins."
Nov. 1, 1639. Signed with the mark and signum of Robinhood.
" Signum of MOWHOTIWORMET or ROBINHOOD."
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dence of the great native chieftain, from whom is derived most of our landed titles, on the lower waters of the ancient " Shepscooke ; " and who ruled over, and owned as the orig- inal native lord, a territory embracing Boothbay harbor on the south-east, the ancient Cape Newagen of Levett; the bordering territory on the ancient Sacadiock, westward ; and to Wiscasset above.
The father of this chieftain was known to Capt. Levett, the voyager, and met him at Cape Newagen fifteen years before with Somarset, of Pemaquid, with whom he must have been a cotemporary. Ma-na-wormet, Cog-a-wesco and Somarset, as we have heretofore seen, all were with Levett, at Cape Newagen; and were undoubtedly cotemporary chief- tains, earliest known to the earliest European settlers of the " ancient Dominions of Maine."
Mow-ho-ti-wormet, the son of deceased Mony-wormet Da- marian of Sewall's history, (the Ramegin of Drake's) nick- named Robinhood by the English settlers of the Sheepscot, appears to have been well disposed to the whites.
EXPORT OF CATTLE.
The colonists of Massachusetts constantly ex- 1640. tended their trade with the east; and from the furs and peltries gathered of the natives in exchange for corn, attention was turned to the import of neat cattle from Pemaquid. Joseph Grafton 1 in a forty-ton vessel sailed from Salem to Pemaquid, where shipping twenty cows and oxen, he returned in four days.
Longer settled and more populous, the raising of stock in the pastures of Pemaquid had created an excess and opened a source of gainful traffic - a fact, which speaks well for the enterprise and thrift of the early colonists in the east, and
1 Annals of Salem, p. 528.
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illustrates their agricultural character and habits and taste, in favorable contrast with the trading propensities of the Mas- sachusetts colonists.
CONDITION OF THE SETTLEMENTS.
Eight men bound to Pemaquid embarked at Pis- cataqua in the winter of this year ; but driven into 1641. . Monhegan by a storm, sheltered themselves in the unoccupied cabins of the fishermen till rescued; where four of their number perished. The general character of the population was still darkly shaded - made up " largely of fishermen." Josselyn classifies the population in a period a little subsequent to this date, "as magistrates, husbandmen and fishermen. Of the magistrates, some be Royalists, the rest perverse-spirits, the like are the planters and fishers, of which some be planters and fishers both - others mere fishers. There are but few hand-craftsmen and no shopkeepers, English goods being kept by Massachu- setts merchants, here and there on the coast, at a profit of cent per cent, in exchange for fish.
They have a custom of taking tobacco, sleeping at noon, sitting long at meals, sometimes four times a day. Every Shallop has four fishermen, a master, a midship-man and a fore-mast-man, and a shore-man ; who washes it out of the salt and dries it upon hurdles, pitcht upon stakes, breast high and tends to the cookery; and often they share eight to nine pound a man, which doth them but little good, for then comes in a walking tavern,- a Bark laden with the rich blood of the grape." We may judge somewhat correctly of the recklessness of habits among settlers, and it is a wonder more accidents did not occur.
FIRST DEATH BY DROWNING.
The earliest recorded accidental drowning occurred in the waters of the Kennebec in September of this 1646.
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date, in the person of William Waldron. This gentle- man was cultivated in his mind and manners, and held the office of Clerk of Courts in Saco, under Gorges' jurisdiction. For intemperance, he had become an ex-communicant from the church in Dover, and moved his residence into Maine, and was drowned in crossing the Kennebec. But the de- sire to acquire permanent homes and a title in the soil extended itself among the fishermen, as well as among the artisans, agriculturists, and colonial population of Maine.
THE NAME OF OUR STATE.
With great energy of purpose, untiring persever- 1647. ance, and from motives benevolent and patriotic- not to deny the existence of those more latent which originate in the selfishness of the human heart, Sir Ferdi- nando Gorges prosecuted schemes of colonization, till through the favor of Charles I. of England, he secured a provin- cial charter, by which the wilds of North-Eastern America were constituted a body politic to become endowed with all the forms and forces of civil society ; and which was desig- nated the province of " Maine."
It was thus the protege of the indefatigable Gorges found a name, in the royal State paper of April 3, 1639, which has become the pass-word of authority, and is the title of our State to this day. Having effectually excited public interest in opening and developing its resources, and started a series of colonial movements for the enlargement of its population, till he had given to our State a name, Gorges died, without reaping any considerable benefit, other than empty titles, as a reward for his labors and sacrifices.
JOHN PARKER'S SETTLEMENT.
A title to the great island, on the east side and 1649. forming the east bank of the ancient Sagadahock, (and probably the ancient "island of Sagadahock,")
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of which, " Sebenoa," the native chieftain, who, on meeting Capt. Gilbert, of Popham's colony, proclaimed himself the " lord," was now acquired by John Parker. At the date of the purchase, the island went by name of Res-keagan. The fisherman, John Parker, of Boston, within thirty years of Popham's colonial adventures at the mouth of the Kenne- bec, engaged in the fisheries between there and Monhegan; and is said to have occupied the southern extreme of this is- land, where are still to be seen the remains of an ancient town. 1
THE ORIGINAL PURCHASE OF WESTPORT.
" Jeremy Squam," an island in the Sheepscot, now the town of Westport, the aboriginal name of which seems to have been " the island of Jeremy, who lives by the water, meaning the island of water creeks," 2 became the prop- erty of John Richards, who, with a Thomas Webber, lived on the upper end of Res-keagan or Parker's island opposite, and who purchased it of the Sagamore Damarine or Robin- hood. From the settlement of Parker, grew near the sea- side the ancient " New Town ; " while, from the Popham site, the colony revived by Dermer, or at the elbow, on the headland, the site of the ancient church where the Kennebec turns into "Long Reach," grew up a hamlet on the western margin of the river, together with the plantations of Merry Meeting above.
BIRTH PLACE OF WILLIAM PHIPS.
Not far from Wiscasset on the lower margin of Monseag Bay, near the mouth of a rivulet of the 1650. same name, a peninsula of arable land strikes out from the south-eastern extreme of the purchase of Bate-
1 Williamson, vol. i, p. 53. Me. H. Col., vol ii, p. 192.
2 Hon. S. Parsons.
-
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man and Brown (Woolwich) into a body of water, formed by the junction of the waters of the bay above in their pas- sage to the sea, with those flowing from Sheepseot Bay be- low into the Kennebee, opposite the city of Bath.
This body of water encircling the base of a mountainous headland of nearly perpendicular steeps and cliffs, called Hockomock, where it receives, as a reservoir, the waters of three tides, opens into an expanse, or magnificent basin ; from the indented rim of which, as well as through its center, wind navigable channels.
Bold shores, precipitous headlands, picturesque islands, low extended land-falls and fertile margins, give here a land- scape of surpassing beauty.
WILLIAM PHIPS, THE SHIP BUILDER.
On this peninsula, commanding this lovely scene of land and water, in the direct track of the great inland thorough- fare between Pemaquid and Kennebec, (and near to the rock, which ancient tradition affirms, has turned, from time immemorial, "three times round whenever it hears the cock crow," rising from the deep like a hay-stack at the point, where the salt sea-water meets and mingles with the fresh) was born on the 2d of February, William Phips .- To this peninsula, as the precise locality of his birth, tradi- tion to this day points the traveler, and calls it " Phips' point." Near his birth place, in the head of the cove made by the point on one side and Hoekomock on the other, grew up a hamlet. This son of Sheepscot subsequently became one of the most renowned worthies of New England ; whose mother was one of its most noted matrons; who, it is said, gave to her country twenty-one sons and five daughters .- William learned the trade of ship-wright. He then learned to read and write, in Boston. In Boston, he contracted to
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build a ship on the Sheepscot - she was built and launched successfully.
PHIPS' ADVENTURES.
He had provided for this ship a cargo of lumber, which he had nearly completed, when disturbed by Indian hostilities, the settlers fled in her to Boston, and thus escaped the savage tomahawk.
A Spanish silver-laden galleon, from the mines of Peru, had been wrecked on the Bahamas. Phips fitted out an ex pedition, found the sunken hulk, and therefrom raised "thirty-two tons of silver, a bushel of pieces of eight, and vast riches of pearls and jewels ; in value, all amounting to three hundred thousand pounds sterling."
" Phips' ship-yard was on or near the Sheepscot waters not far from his birth place, according to the most authentic tra- dition, and not at the Sheepscot farms," 1 in Newcastle. Phips' wealth procured for him a knight-hood ; and he be- came invested with the authority of Governor of Massachu- setts, which office he filled with dignity and executed with success.
POPULATION AND STAPLES OF TRADE.
At the period of the birth of Phips, a considerable com- munity had reared their cabins along the margins of the Sheepscot and Damariscotta, which had acquired something of the permanence and value of homes. Furs, fish, and lumber were the great staples of trade. The noble pine - the growth of centuries - the stately spruce, sufficiently large for masts and spars to ships of war, towering above all the surrounding forests, covered the river banks and invited the sturdy woodman's axe. Hence the deep waters of the
1 Hon. S. Parsons, Greenleaf's act. - Greenleaf, an early resident on Oak island.
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Sheepscot, with the magnificent harbor of Boothbay at its mouth, attracted artisans, ship-wrights, carpenters, and com- merce, as well as fur traders and fishermen; while the fer- tile bottoms at and about the upper Sheepscot fringed with vast meadows of salt marsh, no less powerfully drew thither early agriculturists. It is estimated five hundred souls had their homes on and about the Sagadahock, Sheepscot, and Damariscotta at this time.
" TRAVEL."
The water-courses were the highways of travel. Hence the river banks were first occupied by settlers. This solves the problem of ancient ruins and remains of long-forgotten homes, everywhere found in the cellars, brick, and pottery along the eastern shores of the Sheepscot; of which the author has himself visited five or six within a distance of less than two miles.
TRANSFER OF TITLES.
It was at this period the second-hand titles to landed estate were made, out of which, confusion, litigation, and much wrong resulted. "The Pemaquid patent was resolved into what afterward became known as the Drowne claim," and grievously oppressed and disquieted the citizens of Bristol, Nobleboro', and part of Newcastle. One of the sons of the firm of Aldworth and Elbridge became the pos- sessor of its title to the Pemaquid purchase. This son mort- gaged Monhegan and Damariscove to one Russel, who, with a Mr. Davison, purchased the balance. Russel sold out to Davison ; and one of Davison's daughters married Shem Drowne. The " Brown right" was derived from the con- veyance of the sagamore Somerset to John Brown, who resided near to Pemaquid, at New Harbor. These facts indicate such an increase of population as to render the soil valuable as an acquisition in the estimation of the early
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planters ; and that their character had undergone a change from that of an adventurous cast to that of a stable, indus- trious, and home-like people, who were seeking the comforts of life in the products of the soil rather than in the uncer- tain issues of trade and speculation. It is to be presumed that thrift now began to appear, as the settlements had reached that stage of development when the stubbornness of nature had been subdued, and the embarrassments of the unbroken soil so far overcome as to yield profitable returns in the comforts and luxuries of life.
So far as the opening of the channels of industry, and the establishment of a home were concerned, the settlements had become developed ; but the full organization of society, in the local application of law and order, was yet incomplete.
JOHN MASON, SHEEPSCOT PROPRIETOR.
A distinguished name among the settlers and orig- inal proprietors of Sheepscot was John Mason. 1652. From Damarin by purchase he had acquired a title to a considerable body of land, commencing at Sheepscot falls, running easterly, and embracing the "Great Neck." By the claim of Stephen Calef, exhibited before the Com- missioners, Mason's purchase extended from Sheepscot falls in Newcastle southward and eastward to a freshet called "Oven's Mouth,"- a well known inlet of the waters of Sheep- scot river, opening eastward and separating between the southern boundary of Edgecomb and the northern boundary of Boothbay, caused by a narrow gorge between rocks and precipitous cliffs, through which the tide ebbs and flows with a deep and rapid current, to fill and empty a shallow inte- rior basin, receiving the waters of a considerable fresh water pond from Boothbay on the south, and of "Wild-cat Meadow" on the north-east, - the margins of which rise in a gentle slope or swell of light and fertile soil, which must have been
9
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covered in early days with a heavy growth of maple, pump- kin pines, and spar timber.
Mason must therefore have owned originally the banks of the Sheepscot in the town of Edgecomb ; and the Sheepscot " Great Neck " must have been the peninsula beginning at Sheepscot falls on the north, and terminating at " Oven's Mouth," between the Sheepscot and Cross rivers, on the south, a section some five miles long by a mile and a half broad.
CIVIL CONDITION OF SETTLEMENTS.
As before stated, except the municipal administration at Pemaquid, at this period no legal organization, no body pol- itic, no application of law had been made to the settlements within the ancient dominions of Maine. True, "rules and regulations of a stringent character" for governing their intercourse with the natives had been applied to the settlers on the Kennebec, within the territory of the Plymouth colony. Notwithstanding an arrangement had been made between the Kennebec sagamores and settlers there to establish a court in which all complaints should be heard, (by the sag- amores, if the natives were in fault, and by the court, if the settlers were in the wrong ), evil complications had grown up between the settlers and savages, as well as among the settlers themselves.
ORGANIZATION OF A COURT AT MERRY MEETING.
At the house of Thomas Ashley, a resident at
1654. " Merry Meeting," " the English inhabiting upon May 23. and near to the river commonly called the Kenne- bec, who, by their paucity and fewness of numbers and their remoteness, have not hitherto enjoyed the benefit of government,1 for the purpose of settling a government
1 M. H. Coll. vol. ii, pp. 193-4.
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upon the said river of Kennebec," in pursuance of a sum- mons and warrant issued to the Marshal of New Plymouth, requiring the inhabitants on said river to make their personal appearance, said inhabitants " did generally assemble," viz : Thomas Purchase, residing on the southwesterly margin of the bay at the " foot 1 of the falls," where the Androscoggin enters, - John Stone, Thomas Ashley, John Richards of Jeremy Squam and Arrowsic, James Smith, William James, Thomas Parker, residing at the mouth of the river, together with John Parker on the southern extreme of the island of the same name, and whose hamlet was the nucleus of the ancient " New 2 Town," a settlement or village which there arose ; John White, John Brown, resident at Nequasset, William Davis, Thomas Webber, Thomas Atkins, residing at the mouth of the river on the west margin, James Coale, Edmund Hughes, Alex. Thwait, residing at Winnegance near Long Reach. This assemblage of the pioneer settlers was sworn to faithfulness to government and to one another in the administration of law and regulations applicable to their state and circumstances. The common law was rec- ognized as binding ; and the reparation of its wrongs was provided for. Drunkenness was prohibited ; and the sale of intoxicating drink to the natives was forbidden under pen- alties. Trade was regulated with the Indians-trial by jury secured-Purchase was appointed as presiding justice, and Ashley was chosen constable-when the assembly adjourned to meet in court at the same place on the year ensuing.
PRICE OF THE PURCHASE OF BRISTOL.
John Brown, the son of John Brown of New Har- bor, and the original settler, who by his interest with 1654. the chieftain Somarset, the native lord of the soil,
1 John McKeen, Esq. Me. Hist. Coll., vol. iii.
2 1668, Clark and Lake laid out a town on the south side of Arrowsic in ten acre lots. Me. H. Coll., p. 192.
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occupied and became the chief proprietor of the town of Bristol, " for fifty skins of beaver," 1 now resided on what was assumed to be his father's land at Damariscotta, at the lower or salt water falls, on the east margin at the point,- the site of Damariscotta village.
HAMLETS OF BROWN AND PHILIPS.
His residence was nearly opposite the site of the house of Jas. Smith, the son-in-law of Walter Philips, who lived on the west margin of these falls; while Robert Scott occupied a plantation above Brown's on the same side of the river, and opposite Taylor's, the neiglibor of Walter Philips. Brown and his neighbors were forced . to flee with Philips, during the outbreak of the savages in the first Indian war; at which time Walter Philips, James Smith, and John Taylor, on the west margin of the Damariscotta at the lower falls, and John Brown, Jr., and Robert Scott on the east were the sole residents where the villages of Newcastle and Damaris- cotta now stand. 2
CLARK AND LAKE.
Clark and Lake of Boston having purchased Ar- 1658. rowsic Island, (the land of rest amid the waters- or quiet-water land), on the southern extreme laid out a town in ten-acre lots, intersected at right angles with streets of ample width. Major Clark and Capt. Lake were Boston merchants ; and on the site of the new town erected a warehouse, several large dwelling-houses, and many other buildings, together with a fort near the water-side. Many immigrants had here established their homes. 3
1 Commiss. Reports.
2 Deed from Samasset, L. R.
3 Hubbard, p. 247.
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SETTLEMENT.
PURCHASE PRICE OF THE TOWN OF PHIPSBURG.
John Parker, not satisfied with the acquisition of his Island territory, now infected with the 1659. spirit of land speculation, so rife in the wilds of June 14. Maine, for the consideration of " one beaver skin and the yearly rent of one bushel of corn and a quart of liquor to be paid unto Robinhood, or his heirs forever, at or before every ( Christmas) 25th 1 day of December, at the dwelling house of said Parker," ( reserving to himself and heirs the right to fish, fowl, and hunt-also to set otter traps without molestation) acquired a possessory right in a tract of land on the " west side of Sagadahoc River," begin- ning at the "high head," six miles up to Winnegance Creek, and southwestwardly unto the eastern part of Casco Bay,-embracing the principal portion of the territory of the present town of Phipsburg,-in presence of Henry Jocelyn, Richard R. Foxwell, and Roger Spencer. In the meanwhile trouble had grown up between the natives and pioneers of the Kennebec. In the progress of differences, violence had been developed-" some of the savages having been killed-some carried away-and their hunting interrupted, and the trade in furs depreciated." These circumstances, evils of the lawless state of society, at length arrested the legislative attention, 2 and acts were passed relating thereto, for the restraint of lawlessness in trade, and regulating intercourse with the native population.
A fort had also been constructed on "Stinson's Point," near the margins of Hockomock Bay, where 1660. a trading establishment had grown up under the enterprise of Hammond, an Indian " truck master," who had selected a position for his traffic on this great inland
1 Original paper, in archives of M. H. Soc. MSS. Files, Me. H. Soc. archives.
2 Pejepscot and Plymouth controversy, p. 40.
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